Viziflux: The use of digital video processing to assess free-flap vascularization

Poor perfusion through the flap has been identified as a major cause of flap failure. it would be of great value to develop a system that would provide an early warning that a flap is poorly perfused, and thus likely to fail. Such a system would allow for timely revision that could spare the flap. For this study, we plan to use the Viziflux monitoring system developed by the Plastic Surgery Department to supplement the flap monitoring process conducted by hospital staff. We plan to use the Viziflux on 100 consented subjects. There is no randomization, as this is not a treatment study. instead, subjects that consent will have their flaps monitored by surgical staff according to commonly accepted protocols and the Viziflux system; which will record video of their free flaps. The video will be processed by a computer algorithm that will record perfusion through the flap. We would like to record perfusion data for 100 patients in the hopes that we will record both successful flaps as well as flap failures so that we can understand the difference between the two.